Changes in the Panamanian wage structure: a quantile regression analysis

Abstract

The changes in the wage structure of a country are an important area of research. However, the empirical evidence about the evolution of wages in developing countries is still quite scant. In this paper we contribute to fill this gap by studying the evolution of the wage structure in Panama for the period 1982-1997. We model the (conditional) distribution of wages by means of the quantile regression technique and apply this model to study the male wage distribution and its evolution during the last two decades in Panama. Overall, we find that the wage structure remained fairly stable over the period studied.